Sounds Like: Motherf#$%ing OUTER SPACE!; Eight million guitars at once delivered to your face; the 70’s after it had an accident with a Tardis; mighty fine podcast intro music.

Why You Should Care: All of this has happened before…

Fridays are for flashbacks (or something) and so we’re delivering a DOUBLE FLASHBACK, as that is simply how we roll. This isn’t the first time we’ve posted this track, and much to the chagrin of the team, it won’t be the last. But since we’ve kicked off posting tracks again, just different this time, it seemed appropriate.

What you’re about to put in your ears is either one of the greatest achievements in the history of recorded music or THE GREATEST. Hyperbole aside, in 1986, 70s rockers Boston were well past their prime (when WERE they in their prime, really?) yet saw fit to drag their van-tastic sensibilities kicking-and-screaming into the latter half of the 80s without a hint of irony. Third Stage was supposed to be some sort of statement. But much like the 70s as a whole, its message hilariously missed its own point, as much as it illuminated a few reasons why the 70s were so “groovy” in doing so.

One man. One woman. Learning how to commit. Who the #@#@ is Hollyann?

That’s Third Stage’s journey in a nutshell, and “Cool The Engines” kicks the record into high gear three tracks in. In an album that is built around not just an emotional theme, but a musical theme, the unimpeachable riffs contained in “Engines” provide the thrust required for liftoff, and the record doesn’t come back down from outer-space until the closing notes of “Hollyann” ring like chimes dissipating into the cosmos.

So there’s your flashback. Why this song? For one, we use it in our freaking podcast intro. More importantly though, it sits at the core of what we’re trying to do with the site. What I just wrote, what you (maybe) just read, is pretty ridiculous. But that’s rock n’ roll: Ridiculous, loud, hyperbolic, and most of all, fun. For a good bit now, I’ve been struggling with how do to this site going forward, and what I’ve landed on is really right there in the tagline: Music and Nothing But.